The Roman empire is crumbling! Well the internal parts of our Roman shades are crumbling that is… I thought the heat/sun damage was limited to the lifter rings and blackout sheet, but as I tried to carefully remove the staples from the horizontal rails that create the pleats, they crumbled. After a little shopping around, I found the lightest, stiffest non-wood (anti-warp) strips at my local big box hardware store. Except for the top rail and pulleys the Roman shades will be all new.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the topic of shopping, Alice found the color/pattern that fits us, color swatch is shown below. A white/gray pattern in the center, burgundy on the sides with leather like gray vinyl for the valances. Since the shades are 62″ wide and the cloth 54″ the burgundy eliminates the need to match up the patterned material. Now that Alice has colors figured out, she started calculating the cuts for the taller side windows and wider back window.